Marcus Krüger won multiple Stanley Cups. He was used as the ultimate matchup center going up against the world’s best. He wasn’t an offensive player, but he does have one of the biggest goals in Blackhawks franchise history. He was paid well for his role.
The NHL and North America were very good to Krüger. He looks back at that stage of his career with gratitude and fondness. It was a special time.
But so is now.
Although he’s not playing for as big of a prize (at least on the world’s hockey scale), isn’t making the same amount of money and isn’t facing the same level of talent, the 34-year-old Krüger couldn’t be happier than being the captain of his hometown team Djurgården in Stockholm and trying to elevate it out of Sweden’s second division. To him, to Djurgården, to Stockholm, this is everything.
“It sounds a little bit silly to say that I care as much about this, but it really is (important),” Krüger said. “There’s a lot of way more important stuff going on in the world, but this is something I can really make a difference in a way. So that’s kind of nice. You wake up in the morning and you have some kind of purpose to do a job and do something that could make a difference, at least for hockey in Stockholm.”
To understand what Krüger is talking about, you have to understand Sweden’s current hockey landscape. Stockholm is by far Sweden’s largest city and doesn’t have a team in Sweden’s top division, the SHL, right now. Its two major hockey teams, Djurgården and AIK, are in the second division, HockeyAllsvenskan. AIK hasn’t been in the SHL since 2014 and Djurgården since 2022.
“It means a lot to people in a different way than just like winning,” Krüger said. “It’s like if we can take the step up to the first league, that’s going to mean the world for a lot of people here. It’s going to mean the world for the people at the front office that get to keep their job. You can hire more people. And for a kid just to like play hockey in Stockholm, Stockholm is like the biggest hockey market in Sweden and we don’t have a team in the first league, so that would mean the world for those kids to get to see the best players in Sweden actually to play.
“Yeah, it’s meaningful in a different way. It’s not like you become world champion, but when I was a kid, this was my dream to play for this team.”
Krüger’s journey back to the club has been a long one. He had last played for Djurgården during the 2010-11 season. He joined the Blackhawks, who had drafted him, at the end of that season and finished the season playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was start of seven consecutive seasons, including 79 playoff games, with the Blackhawks.
Krüger was traded from the Blackhawks to the Vegas Golden Knights in July of 2017 and then was moved to the Carolina Hurricanes a few days later. He spent a majority of the 2017-18 season with the Hurricanes and was traded to Arizona Coyotes in May of 2018. That offseason, he was dealt back to the Blackhawks and spent his final NHL season in Chicago.
Marcus Kruger played most of his NHL career with the Blackhawks. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Krüger enjoyed being back in Chicago, even if the Blackhawks weren’t as competitive as they had been, but he also began to sense that his NHL days were coming to an end.
“But already those years were kind of tough playing-wise,” Krüger said. “Hockey’s given me so much. I never want to get sick of it or take it for granted, so I kind of felt already there that I may have to do something different because it started to creep in, this feeling that the passion wasn’t there like 100 percent if I just keep going. So during that last year, I kind of felt like, something’s gotta happen, I gotta change my mindset a little bit where maybe I want to try something new.
“So I think that step for me was the best at the time. It was kind of hard to leave North America, but I think that’s a big reason why I’m still playing and still loving it. Because when I leave the game, I want to have no resentment to it and regret something.”
Krüger didn’t return home at first. He signed to play with the ZSC Lions in Switzerland, where his love for hockey was sparked again. He enjoyed no longer being a bottom-six center who mostly started in the defensive zone. He had the puck more. He played more. Playing on the larger ice surface in Europe was different, but he enjoyed the mental challenge of playing that way again.
After three seasons in Switzerland, Krüger decided to return to Sweden and signed with Djurgården before the 2022-23 season. His return was a huge deal. He had accomplished a ton over the decade since he had left the club. Djurgården showed him that respect by making him team captain.
Krüger has wanted nothing more than to push Djurgården back to the SHL since returning. He’s been close, too: Djurgården was one win away from promotion in 2023. It lost a wild seven-game series with MODO Hockey — four games went to overtime and another ended in a 7-6 score in regulation.
“That was a tough one to swallow, for sure,” Krüger said. “That’s probably why I’m still playing — to get that win.”
Krüger and Djurgården had another shot at promotion last season, but were swept by Brynäs in the final series. Now this season, Djurgården is the favorite to be promoted after finishing the regular season with the most points.
Krüger likes to still think of himself as the same player as he was with the Blackhawks. He still puts playing the game the right way first and takes pride in his defense. The difference is he has more offensive success now. Although he always sought to score goals in the NHL and there was that brief experiment as Patrick Kane’s center, his production was always limited. He scored 38 goals in 520 NHL games. But this season, he’s tallied 15 goals in 48 games, which is his highest total in nearly 20 pro seasons.
Krüger shrugged off his offensive numbers and credited them to more ice time and power-play opportunity. Just as with the Blackhawks, it’s not about the individual statistics for him. His motivation is winning, and that part was nurtured in Chicago.
“It’s always fun scoring goals, but what’s even more fun is winning and maybe winning a championship,” Krüger said. “It’s more of what I learned being around those leading players, when I play, I try to implement a little bit here. Like playing with Jonathan (Toews), Duncs (Duncan Keith), Seabs (Brent Seabrook), all those guys, how they were in the room and all that — it’s more stuff like that I try to implement. My game, the way I play, I play how I play and always have. It’s more around the rink, that’s where I feel that’s helped me a lot.”
Krüger doesn’t reminisce about his Blackhawks days too often. It’s not as if he wears his Stanley Cup rings around the locker room to show off. He wasn’t sure the last time he had pulled those out.
“Now that you say it, yeah, it’s 10 years ago or almost 10 years ago, we won there in Chicago and that’s the last time Chicago won a playoff series,” Krüger said. “It feels like it’s going really fast for some reason. It’s almost like it melts into one long season. Even I played in North America and like I was playing in Switzerland for three years and now here back again, it feels like it’s still going and it’s not that often I stop and reflect. You’re always chasing the next goal, whatever that is. … When I do, I’m really grateful that I got to experience that early and all the memories and stuff like that, but it’s not something I think about daily. It’s on to the next thing all the time.”
The next thing is the playoffs in Sweden. Djurgården won its first quarterfinal game, a 4-3 overtime victory, on Sunday. Krüger didn’t score, but he made his usual impact. He won 20 of 26 faceoffs while playing 19:59.
Marcus Krüger remains Marcus Krüger.
(Top photo: Courtesy of DIF Hockey)
